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UK Broadcast Transmission |
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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
| Photos by Dan Glover | Page last updated: 2017-05-10 |
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| Named after Arthur Kelting, a former chairman of the Basildon Development Corporation, Kelting House is a five-storey office block adjacent to the Eastgate shopping centre, completed around 1980. Over the years tenants have included Barclays Bank and the Inland Revenue although by 2015 the building was considered "underused" and a proposal for conversion to flats submitted. Gateway FM's association with Kelting House seems to have been from around 2007 with studios and offices in the building and an antenna used for RSL services on the roof. A full-time CR licence was awarded in February 2010 and service started on 6 August 2010. Gateway FM (now branded Gateway 97.8) opened a studio within the Eastgate Centre around 2008 but has also established studios at local schools in connection with training courses. It appears IP connectivity is used. The flexibility for remote working was fully tested in February 2014 after a fire (arson) overnight at the Eastgate studio. The station was able to continue in service whilst temporary arrangements elsewhere at Eastgate could be made. The planned re-development of Kelting House caused the station to consider alternative transmitter sites with a move to Basildon University Hospital in June 2015. |
| Seen from a multi-storey car park just to the west - Kelting House was built as five floors of offices above a very much taller ground floor area which perhaps is a continuation of the shopping centre in the foreground. The Gateway installation was at the right hand (south) end. |
| Ofcom data from 2011 shows the station with vertical polarisation only and a radiation pattern consistent with the use of a side-mounted dipole. Maximum ERP was to the south. The horizontal dipole may have been for linking at some point. In this view it doesn't look to be long enough for Band I... |
| ...though from a different perspective maybe it was? The Gateway antenna installation has been removed following the change of transmitter site. |
| The station occupies part of the "Upper Gallery" at the Eastgate Centre. Reflections from the roof lights and other parts of the building make it difficult to photograph what's inside! |
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